Groups call on Ottawa to activate foreign influence registry as election approaches

Justice Marie-Josee Hogue, head of the Foreign Interference Commission, speaks after releasing the inquiry's final report in Ottawa on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang)

OTTAWA — Members of diaspora communities are urging Ottawa to get its planned foreign influence transparency registry up and running before the coming general election.

Countries engaging in foreign interference to advance political goals might employ people to act on their behalf without disclosing those ties.

The foreign influence transparency registry will require certain individuals to register with the federal government to help guard against such activity.

An independent commissioner will administer the registration scheme, which is to be enforced through notices, monetary fines and, in the most serious cases, criminal penalties.

Parliament passed federal legislation last year to create the registry.

Gloria Fung, past-president of Canada-Hong Kong Link, said Thursday there’s “still a vacuum” because Ottawa has yet to appoint a commissioner or explain exactly how the registry will work.

Fung appeared at a news conference Thursday with several other representatives of cultural communities concerned about meddling, intimidation and threats from abroad.

New Democrat MP Jenny Kwan, who also took part in the event, accused the government of moving too slowly on the foreign influence registry.

“Where is that registry? What does that registry look like, and what are the requirements for people to follow the law?” she said. “We have none of that information.”

Neither the office of Public Safety Minister David McGuinty nor his department had immediate responses to questions Thursday about progress on implementing the foreign influence registry.

A federal election is widely expected in late winter or early spring after the Liberals choose a successor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Allegations of foreign meddling in the last two general elections helped spur the Liberal government to usher in legislative measures, including the influence registry, to deter interference.

The legislation, known as Bill C-70, created offences for deceptive or surreptitious acts that undermine democratic processes, such as covertly influencing the outcome of a candidate nomination contest.

Another new offence outlaws deceptive or clandestine acts that harm Canadian interests — acts like helping foreign agents pose as tourists to enter Canada.

The final report of a federal inquiry into foreign interference said last month that while the threat of meddling is real, Canada’s democratic institutions have held up well against the dangers.

Inquiry commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue said she saw no indication the overall results of recent federal elections were altered by a foreign actor and she identified only a small number of ridings where interference may have had some effect.

Still, the report made more than four dozen recommendations to improve federal preparedness, increase transparency, bolster electoral integrity and counter threats against diaspora communities.

Hogue called for a “single, highly visible and easily accessible point of contact or hotline” for reporting foreign interference to the government.

The hotline is “not there yet,” said Fung, convener of the Canadian Coalition for a Foreign Influence Transparency Registry, which includes more than 30 multicultural, human rights and policy organizations.

“So what is the government doing?” Fung asked. “Why is our government delaying the process of implementation?”

Members of diaspora communities told the Hogue inquiry how authoritarian regimes can retaliate against those who speak out in Canada by making life extremely difficult for family members back in their former homelands.

The coalition says a central reporting system should allow people to pass along information anonymously, have multilingual supports and be broadened to accept reports of transnational repression intended to coerce or silence diaspora members.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2025.

Article written by Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press